What146;s up Doc?

Depending on how he plays his cards, Murli Manohar Joshi is poised to either score a self-goal or outsmart all the other contenders for lead...

Depending on how he plays his cards, Murli Manohar Joshi is poised to either score a self-goal or outsmart all the other contenders for leadership of a post-Vajpayee BJP. Having resigned from the Union cabinet after a Rae Bareli court ruled charges could be framed against him in the Babri Masjid demolition case, the HRD minister8217;s first instinct will be to hope the prime minister rejects his offer. Paradoxically, Joshi, 69, is also likely to see his biggest detractors in the party praying for him.

The last thing they8217;d want is for Doctor Swadeshi 8212; the man who wrote his doctoral thesis on spectroscopy in Hindi 8212; to travel around the country endearing himself to the Sangh faithful as some sort of martyr figure, trooping into courtrooms alongside Ashok Singhal, occasionally getting arrested in Ayodhya in the company of VHP sadhus. In politics, everybody loves a renunciation, other than the rivals of the renouncer.

Joshi, however, should have no trouble deciphering crocodile tears. The MP from Allahabad 8212; in 1999, he was elected to Parliament for the fourth time 8212; is the very prototype of the wily Uttar Pradesh Brahmin in Indian politics.

It is, actually, as good a time as any for him to give up his ministry. The general election is less than 12 months away. A government8217;s fifth year is usually defined by spent energy. For Joshi, this could the time to encash all his IOUs with the 8216;8216;deep saffron8217;8217; crowd.

For a section of the RSS, the physicist from Allahabad 8212; he taught at the university there, retiring as head of department 8212; has been the BJP8217;s best minister. With the tenacity 8212; and subtlety 8212; of a pitbull, Joshi has taken on the left-liberal brigade in academia, exorcising it from council after council and in general dismantling the patronage edifice Nurul Hasan lovingly built as education minister 30 years ago.

Each time a Marxist academic squealed, the Sangh cheered. Each time, a non-BJP politician walked out on the Saraswati Vandana, Joshi won himself new fans. Now if only he could convert those into a following.

If that8217;s not easy it8217;s because of the man8217;s reputation for factionalism, for combining high Brahminism with low intrigue. As BJP president between 1991-93, Joshi was at the receiving end of 8216;8216;Advani8217;s boys8217;8217; and famously had a spat with K.N. Govindacharya. At that point, he saw himself as an equal, at least a natural successor, to the Vajpayee-Advani partnership. After a near full term as minister, he finds himself sandwiched between the two old men and the pushy, 50 something generation Mahajan-Jaitley generation.

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Whether it was publicly rebuking Narendra Modi 8212; Joshi8217;s aide during the 8216;8216;Kanyakumari to Kashmir8217;8217; Ekta Yatra in 1992 8212; just before the Gujarat election in 2002 or having a dig at M. Venkaiah Naidu at the height of the 8216;8216;lauh purush-vikas purush8217;8217; controversy or scoffing at Pravin Togadia8217;s belligerence, Joshi8217;s recent politics has been driven less by belief and more by a desire to accurately second guess the prime minister.

Now he must hope the prime minister guesses him correctly and tells him to stay on in the cabinet. Else it8217;s back to Ram.